Many light commercial vehicles undergo some form of electrical conversion after manufacture to include additional third-party electrical equipment desired for their particular purpose or application. Such conversions vary in size and complexity from the simple incorporation of additional lighting, to the full conversion of the light commercial vehicle into an emergency services vehicle, which may be equipped with sirens, emergency lighting, specialist equipment and additional batteries to power the equipment over an extended period.
For some vehicles, electrical conversion is commonplace, for example approximately 70% of all Ford® Transits are electrically converted to some extent. When electrical conversion of a particular vehicle is commonplace, it may be desirable for the vehicle manufacturer to provide appropriate technical information to official vehicle converters, to enable the third-party batteries and electrical systems to be integrated with the existing electrical system of the vehicle in an appropriate way. Additionally, in some cases, vehicle manufacturers may offer certain conversions themselves, which are performed by the vehicle manufacturers, or specific external suppliers, following manufacture of the vehicle, e.g. after the vehicle has left the main production line.
Even when a conversion is performed by professional converters, heavy use of the third-party electrical systems can have detrimental effects on the original electrical system of the vehicle. Also, such third-party systems may have high current sleep modes or may not be efficiently isolated when not required. These can impact the normal operation of the vehicle, e.g. preventing the engine of the vehicle from being started or reducing the longevity of the vehicle battery.